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KING WILLIAM’S COLLEGE PUPILS DEVISE INSPIRATIONAL THEATRE

By IsleOfManAdmin on Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Education, Isle of Man

Isle News, 30 June 2009 – Twelve pupils from the Lower Sixth form at King William’s College have recently presented a piece of inspirational theatre which they wrote themselves in just three weeks.

Called ‘Asylum’, the production took snapshots of patients in an asylum environment, and how they cope with their existence there. It was inspired by topics which the 16 and 17 year old pupils have been learning about as part of their International Baccalaureate Drama studies – the ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ a concept introduced by the French playwright Antonin Artaud, where actors show their audience a truth they do not want to see, and Brook’s concept of theatre which says that you can perform anywhere as long as you name the space and have an observer.

Glimpses of asylum life were viewed by the audience as they walked around the set with a ‘doctor’. The pupils created this environment by asking their audience to wear laboratory coats as interns or visitors to the ‘Asylum’.

Clare Ledger, Drama teacher at King William’s College commented: “The pupils created the performance for their end of year assessment for their IB Drama course. They did an excellent job of recreating the sights and sounds of an asylum environment – and worked very hard with some younger pupils from further down the school to achieve a superb piece of theatre.

“They used sound-scapes, as Artaud did, which gave another dimension to the piece. As well as Artaud, pupils also studied the work of Brook and Stanislavski and incorporated elements of Beckett‘s ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ which makes people look at their lives and why we do the things we do.

“The end result was a thought-provoking and inspired piece of theatre which the pupils can be very proud of.”

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